Canopy Biology: The Forest and the Sea An overview and summary of the "Rain Forest to Kelp Forest Symposium" As a high school student in the 1970's, I read pioneer canopy biologist Marston Bates' book The Forest and the Sea (1960, Random House, New York) and was fascinated by his poetic comparisons between life in the forest and life in the sea. The book was popular at the time, as evident from conversations with fellow students and scientists, and by the many printings it had gone through. Yet often overlooked in the enchantment of Bates' rich metaphors was a deeper message that, in forging even more subdisciplines and schools of thought in biology, we end up fragmenting our view of the world at our peril. As a lover of insects since childhood, my own world view was so similar to an ant's that even then I wondered if Bates had taken his metaphors far enough. Surely from an ant’s-eye-view a meadow is as worthy of comparison to life in the sea as is a forest? What, if anything, is so special about the forest? In the spirit of Marston Bates (and in an attempt to answer the question of what might be special about forests), I teamed up with marine ecologist James Eckman of the Office of Naval Research to organize the first symposium directed at comparing terrestrial forests to an aquatic habitat. In making forest comparisons, Bates treated the sea very broadly, as a three-dimensional matrix occupied by life. Jim and I were more interested in specific comparisons between architecturally complex communities on land and in water. As a starting point, we chose to compare rainforests on land with kelp beds in the sea. The symposium was held on 28 December in Portland, Oregon as a session of a convention of the Western Society of Naturalists, a group presently dominated by marine biologists. Winter storms forced the cancellation of three speakers -- including Jim Eckman himself. Still, the symposium was a considerable success, judging both from the discussion forum following the talks and from the e-mails written by marine biologists that I continue to receive six weeks later. Terrestrial researchers presented an overview of forest ecosystems to a marine-biased audience. In his talk "What matters about the organization of matter in canopies?", Geoffrey (Jess) G. Parker of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center explained how recent technologies are enriching concepts of how terrestrial forests are assembled through a broad range of scales in time and space. Nalini Nadkarni of Evergreen State College summarized her work on the stability and complexity of epiphyte communities and the role of canopy plants in nutrient cycling, and described the efforts of ICAN to organize terrestrial forest canopy information in a database. I gave a general prospectus on terrestrial canopy biology, defining the discipline (as I did in a recent Biotropica article) as the study of the aboveground parts of any plant community. I then outlined 6 core areas of canopy study that may apply across systems, both terrestrial and aquatic. Marine researchers included Brian P. Gaylord and Daniel C. Reed of the University of California at Santa Barbara, who looked at propagule dispersal into, out of, and through these forests. They described the importance of release height, sinking speed, and the effects of both local turbulence and broad-range currents. Michael H Graham of the University of California at Davis discussed the coupling of spore production by kelp in relation to flow rates through different portions of the forest interior. In both talks, the vocabulary was remarkably reminiscent to that of terrestrial researchers in this field, though the speakers emphasized that some factors such as a air-water interface and wave-related effects are unique to aquatic systems. Todd Anderson of San Diego State University spoke on fish ecology in kelp canopies, presenting a series of examples of the importance of canopy architecture and stratification to the organization of fish communi-ties. Ross Clark of the California Coastal Commission lectured on his manipulations of the several canopy layers in a kelp stand. Kelp forests can reach 50 m in height and typically contain five strata of plants (algae). Clark and his colleagues were able to distinguish algal species by light requirements and response to canopy clearings (gaps). The practice of applying the term "canopy" to kelp began in the 1930's with Jack Kitching, who, using a milk can with a window made from a glass cookie box, was the first scientist to successfully dive into this ecosystem. Perhaps the word "canopy" comes to mind only for ecosystems we experience from within. This may explain why this word is scarcely used in places where human-biased perspective is limited, such as in viewing canopies of a prairie or a moss mat -- or a kelp bed viewed from above. The "Rain Forest to Kelp Forest" symposium suggested the potential for a comparative biology of canopies, and for an expanded vision of canopy biology that is very much in its infancy. Related links: Association of Tropical Biology (BIOTROPICA) International Canopy Network